The Malaysian Insider

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

PETALING JAYA, Oct 10 — Former Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted today that Barisan National (BN) is weak and Umno has failed the Malay community.

“Today Umno is weak, MCA is weak, Gerakan is weak, MIC is weak and because of that Barisan Nasional is weak. And when Barisan Nasional becomes weak, the Barisan Nasional government will be weak.

“A weak government will not be able to bring benefit to us,” he told party members at a function organized by Umno’s Petaling Jaya Selatan division.

Dr Mahathir asserted that Umno leaders were now preoccupied with personal interests instead of that of the community’s.

“This is the situation that we face today because we only emphasize personal interests rather the interest of race, religion and country.

“What we forget is that when our race is successful, a small group of us will also benefit. It is not possible for one race to be successful but their people not to get any benefits,” he said.

Dr Mahathir added that the people are no longer scared of Umno and BN.

“Back then when there was an election, our party will get two thirds of parliamentary seats and when we get two thirds majority, our strength is very strong so that we can if we wanted to amend the constitution.

“When we are strong, people will not dare to challenge us, people will not dare to make harsh statements that will raise tension among the different races,” he said.

The former prime minister pointed out that Malaysians no longer respected the government and had no fear of the law.

“Now it seems that nobody cares about the law because they assume that this is a weak government and the government cannot do anything.

“If they all break the law, what is the government going to do?  And the government also knows that they cannot do anything. If they arrest anyone, tomorrow they will have to release them because of pressure,” he said.

Dr Mahathir also took the opportunity to lash out at his handpicked successor Tun Abdullah Badawi.

“Because he only prioritized himself, his family and he is involved in corruption so all of his family are involved in corruption. So today we can see that almost everything was destroyed when he became prime minister for five years,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak now has to compromise with the demands of different races because of the weak coalition he inherited from Abdullah.

“He is forced to entertain demands from other races. He now has to take from one race to give another race but this will not add support to the government.

“If we have to take what is rightful from one race to give to another race because we want to get support then we might get the support from this race but will certainly lose support from the other race,” he explained.

Tun Dr Mahathir also took a jab at Pakatan Rakyat and accused them of pretending to be “more liberal.”

“They encourage public discussion of sensitive issues which have caused tension among the races. The friendship and cooperation of the different races in the past no longer exists.

“Not only that but support for the ruling party which has been successful in developing the country has declined due to false accusations made by Pakatan Rakyat saying that we do not fight for the rights of our people,” he said.

Comments (37)

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form